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Cover: © 2008. Berne Guerrero. "Sugbu." CC BY-SA 3.0 PH. Includes an image “Magellan’scross” from his 2 February 2008 trip to Cebu and images from nick kulas/Nicholas Manuel."sinulog 1." CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225804287/ "Festival Queenof San Carlos." CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2216666645/ "sinulog4." CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225803797/ "sinulog 3." CC BY-SA 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/2225803933/.

Nicholas Manuel is a photographer from Cebu City. His website can be found at http://www.nicholasmanuel.com. His 6 photos on Sinulog 2008 were shared through CC BY-SA 2.0licenses at flickr.com. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickulas/sets/72157603787289072/) Onthe other hand, Berne Guerrero is the deputy project lead of Creative Commons in thePhilippines. His website can be found at http://www.berneguerrero.com. The Sinulog Festivalis held every January in Cebu City in honor of the Santo Niño. (See http://www.sinulog.ph/)

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization, foundedin 2001, that promotes the creative re-use of intellectual andartistic works, whether owned or in the public domain.Through its free copyright licenses, Creative Commons offersauthors, artists, scientists, and educators the choice of aflexible range of protections and freedoms that build uponthe "all rights reserved" concept of traditional copyright toenable a voluntary "some rights reserved" approach. CreativeCommons was built with and is sustained by the generoussupport of organizations including the Center for the PublicDomain, the Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation,The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, andThe William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well asmembers of the public. For more information about CreativeCommons, visit http://creativecommons.org.

Creative Commons is working with the e-Law Center of theArellano University School of Law to create Philippinesjurisdiction-specific licenses from the generic CreativeCommons licenses.

About Arellano University School of Law (AUSL)The Arellano University School of Law (AUSL), a non-stocknon-profit institution, is named after the First Chief Justice ofthe Philippine Supreme Court, Cayetano S. Arellano, andestablished in 1938. Today it boasts more than six decadesof providing quality legal education. The foremost objectiveof the school is to create global lawyers: practitioners whoare deeply educated in the law, practice-ready, and devotedto service not only in the local but also the internationalcommunity. Arellano Law prides itself for being one of themost populous law schools in the Philippines with facultymembers who have distinguished themselves in law practice,the judiciary, government service, and the academe. Thelaw school furthermore is one of the few schools in thePhilippines that produces the most number of lawyers in theannual bar examinations administered by the Supreme Court.For more information, please visit http://www.arellanolaw.edu/.

About the e-Law Center at Arellano University Schoolof Law. The e-Law Center was founded in November 2002under the auspices of the Arellano University School of Law,following the launching of the school’s LAWPHiL Project,which is considered one of the most popular on-line andelectronic databases of Philippine law and jurisprudence thatis accessible for free to the general public. The Center ispursuing projects in research, publication, policy initiativesand advocacy, capability building, academic support, andlinkages in the field of information and communicationtechnology as it affects the Philippine legal system.

Philippine Launch Celebration: avibrant member of the globalcommons

Share, Remix, Reuse -- Legally

Strides towards a PhilippineCommons -- Concept and Direction

Strides towards a PhilippineCommons -- A sampling

Nightcap: the CC-PH Mini-Concert

The Past Two Months at CreativeCommons International

ACIA (Asia and the Commons in theInformation Age): Asia Commonersmeet in Taipei

Introducing the Arellano LawSingers

Introducing Lisa Diy

The Philippine Legal Commons

Creative Commons Newsletters 1-5

Bayanihan Books, an OpenTextbook Initiative

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Unless provided otherwise, the contents of this newsletterare licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph

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PHILIPPINE LAUNCH CELEBRATION: A VIBRANT

MEMBER OF THE GLOBAL COMMONS

Following the unveiling of thePhilippine localized CreativeCommons licenses [1] inDecember, [2] citizens willgather on January 14th inManila to celebrate in full thepublic launch of the country'scompleted licenses and itsstrides towards fostering theglobal commons movement.The launch activities arescheduled to take place from1:00pm to 9:00pm at theArellano University School ofLaw.[3]

Highlights include: anorientation to projects from thePhilippine Commons,[4] a localinitiative to promote alternativelicensing, free and opensource software, openeducation, and free culture; the

by Michelle Thorne13 January 2008, CC BY 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7971http://creativecommons.org/press-releases/entry/7974

Attorney Jaime N. Soriano, Creative Commons PhilippinesProject Lead and Executive Director of the e-Law Center,announces that the launch activities are scheduled to takeplace on January 14, 2008 from 1:00pm to 9:00pm atthe Arellano University School of Law.

The event will consist of three parts: 1) an orientation toprojects by stakeholders in the Philippine Commons, withthe aim of developing a local collaboration promotingalternative licensing, free and open source software, openeducation, and free culture; 2) the public presentation ofthe CC Philippine Licensing Suite Version 3.0, which hasbeen available online since its soft launch December 15,2007; and 3) the CC Philippines Concert featuring morethan six local rock bands.

Atty. Soriano and Atty. Michael Vernon M. Guerrero,Deputy Project Lead of CC Philippines, are both pleasedto also announce the public launching of the PhilippineCommons website, available atwww.philippinecommons.org, and the adaption of a CClicense to the LawPhil Project, the most popular and

"Remix." © 2008. Berne Guerrero. Some Rights Reserved. Except when otherwise noted , this workis licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/ Built upon the works of [1] BethKanter (cambodia4kidsorg). "What A Second Grader Knows About Creative Commons." BY 2.0Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/2042494952/; [2] Peter Shanks(BotheredByBees). "CC swag XI". BY 2.0 Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/botheredbybees/2101568605; [3] Emil Alviola. "scratch-this". BY 2.0 Generic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/21328364@N06/2070594652/; and [4] Creative Commons "About" text. CC BY 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/about/ . Originally for front stage (function hall), formal CC PH licenselaunching, 14 January 2008.

public presentation of the CC Philippine Licensing SuiteVersion 3.0,[5] which has been available online since itssoft launch December 15, 2007; and the CC PhilippinesConcert[6] featuring more than six local rock bands.

See also:* Article about CC & the launch event in the Manila

Times[7] by CC Philippines Project Lead Atty. JaimeN. Soriano

* Event on Yahoo! Upcoming [8]

San Francisco, CA, USA and Pasay City, Metro Manila,Philippines -- January 14, 2008

Following the unveiling of the Philippine localized CreativeCommons licenses in December, citizens of thearchipelago will gather today in Manila to celebrate infull the public launch of its completed licenses and thecountry’s strides towards fostering the global commonsmovement.

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comprehensive website on Philippine law andjurisprudence.

The localized CC licenses will also be applied to theArellano Law and Policy Review; the law school’s IT LawJournal, whose first quarter issue features all articlesdevoted to Creative Commons; and the original works ofthe Arellano Law Singers. These materials will bepresented and shared at ACIA: International Workshopon Asia and Commons in the Information Age, held onJanuary 19-20 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Endnotes

1 http://creativecommons.org/international/ph2 http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/79103 http://www.arellanolaw.edu/4 http://www.philippinecommons.org/5 http://creativecommons.org/international/ph/6 http://www.philippinecommons.org/2007/12/13/cc-ph-

soft-launch-and-cc-5th-birthday/7 http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/jan/13/

yehey/career/20080113car2.html8 http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/404875

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There is probably no mass media technology that could compete withcyberspace in terms of propagating and circulating ideas and humanexpressions. The Internet is now the leading repository of music, video,photographs, live journals, books, presentations, documents, and otherforms of artistic, literary, educational and even scientific creations.

The existing copyright regime applies, and provides legal protection, tothis intellectual property works expressed in digital form. The arrangementis of course perfect especially so that in many countries copyright attaches

SHARE, REMIX, REUSE – LEGALLY

by Jaime N. Soriano13 January 2008, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 PH

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/jan/13/yehey/career/20080113car2.html

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to the work from the moment of creation. Butthis legal safeguard could also stifle creativity,public exposure, and in a sense impose somerestraint on the creator’s freedom of choiceparticularly on the manner on how the netizenscould use, exploit or distribute the work. And thisis what Creative Commons seeks to address.

Creative Commons, a non-stock, non-profitglobal movement of prestigious organizations andstakeholders now existing in more than fiftycountries, provides free tools that let authors,scientists, artists, and educators easily mark theircreative work with the freedoms they want it tocarry. They can use CC to change copyrightterms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some RightsReserved".

Creative Commons is not anti-copyright. On thecontrary, it is based on, and works within theframework of, copyright and recognizes that every

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intellectual creation in the digital world is entitledto both legal and moral respect.

Certainly, Creative Commons does not deny thecommercial use or distribution of works. Come tothink of it, it can even open up better avenues forsubsequent commercial opportunities.

Pure and simple, what Creative Commons providesthe authors, artists, educators, and scientists is the

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option, to let the world knows exactly how they want their works or creations used,distributed or even exploited, as a legal alternative to the default regime called copyright.In short, Creative Commons is all about freedom, promoting free culture and knowledgesharing.

While copyright principles are almost uniform in every country that recognizes it sincethe 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, some of itsterms still vary.

Thus, Creative Commons embarked on porting its licenses in each country affiliatedwith it to make sure that local CC licenses conform to domestic copyright laws.

In the Philippines, this author is the legal and public lead of the project jurisdiction withthe Arellano University School of Law, throughits e-Law Center, as the lead public institution.

The country has successfully ported its localCreative Commons license last December 15,2007 and is now available for pinoynetizensto use.

[On] January 14, the Arellano Law School[held] the official public launching of Creative

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Commons – Philippines and its ported licenses. The launch [was] preceded byopen sessions on free and open source software and e-learning. The event[was] capped with a CC-PH concert featuring local bands and the ArellanoLaw Singers, who [performed] their original works under a Creative Commonslicense.

Artists, educators, scientists, authors, bloggers and creators of works who usethe Internet as a medium may now avail of the Creative Commons PhilippinesLicense Version 3.0 by visiting the website – www.creativecommons.org orwww.philippinecommons.org, and there they can choose their option orfreedom.

With Creative Commons, it is perfectly legal to share, remix and share.

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STRIDES TOWARDS A PHILIPPINE

COMMONS -- CONCEPT AND

DIRECTION

The term "commons" has come to be applied to resources which acommunity has rights or access to. [1] In the context of the prevailinginformation age, emphasis has been made to shared resources,specifically which relates to information, culture, and tools, amongothers.

It is in this context that it is manifest that a substantial number ofindividuals and entities have been pursuing initiatives, or have beencollaborating among themselves, to create, else release, theseresources to the public or the community, away from the exclusivegrasp of proprietary interests. For examples, programmers orsoftware developers have worked together, regardless of businessaffilitations, to create Free Open Source Software (FOSS, or Free/Libre Open Source Software [FLOSS]) and thus provide alternativesto pricey proprietary solutions. Some content developers -- whetherthey may come in the form of text, still images, audio, or video, orany combinations of these -- have been licensing their works tomembers of the public, else liberally dedicating their works to thepublic domain, so that information or content may be shared morefreely, rather than be strangled by the default restrictions providedby copyright laws. Some academic institutions have been releasingtheir course outline and academic materials, so that knowledge maycascade towards those who are not enrolled in such institution, whetherthey may be found inside or outside the country where such institutionis located.

By themselves, as individuals spheres -- for FOSS, Open Content,Open Education, Free Culture -- certain progress can be attained bythose involved in the realization of their goals. Nevertheless, greaterprogress can be attained further if individuals and entities in eachsphere would beable to collaboratewith those in theother spheres.

All slide images in this spread by BerneGuerrero. © 2008. CC BY 3.0 PH: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/

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Considering, for example, that programmers andsoftware developers are able to release a robust andstable free open source software, would not it be easierto disseminate the information about how such softwarecan be utilized through materials, either in the form oftraining manuals or marketing literature, prepared bynon-programmers, who may be open content providers?Would it not be more advantageous for the FOSSdevelopment community that instructions in the use ofFOSS be incorporated in course outlines and syllabi bythose involve in formal education? Would it not be easierfor those involved in formal education to provide theinstructions with the aid of materials by the aforementionedopen content providers? Would it not be similarly easierfor those involved in formal education to utilize FOSS todevelop alternative means in the delivery of knowledge,either suppletorily or primarily, in the form of e-Learning?Likewise, would it be easier for recipients of openinstuctional or academic materials to absorb theinformation embedded therein, if such materials embeds,further, images, sounds, animation, else if such materialsare recrafted or remixed into “open” instructional videosor audios? Perhaps in the above illustrations, indeed,greater progress can be made to realize each other’s

goals if individuals and entities belonging in differentspheres, who would naturally be more concentrated indoing the primary object of their pursuits, could collaboratetogether.

So, how do we get to get these “commons” spherestogether, especially here in the Philippines?

This was the question that was lingering in the minds ofthe Creative Commons Philippines (CC-PH) team aftertheir participation in the iCommons Summit in Dubrovnik,Croatia in June 2007. The question developed in such amanner as a result of a preliminary research on the scopeof “Open Education” in the Philippines, since OpenEducation was one of the four main tracks during thesummit. It has been observed that there have beendispersed initiatives coming from different individuals andentities -- ranging from Open Universities from academicinstitutions, open content materials on free open sourcesoftware from FOSS advocates, advocacy towards opentextbooks (in response to the textbook issue in theDepartment of Education), social responsibility programsof major businesses towards technology and education,among others. Gearing towards the more general“commons movement,” the primary questions were “Isthere anyone indexing all these initiatives?” “Is thereanyone who is making obvious gestures to get these entitiesto work together?” “Should we wait for those who arealready pursuing initiatives towards the “commons” toget the ‘commons’ in the Philippines organized, or shouldCC-PH be directly involved to provide an avenue for theseentities to collaborate with each other?” CC-PH agreedto take a more pro-active approach to develop a“Philippine commons.”

As first steps towards this initiative, CC-PH set-up thePhilippine Commons website;[2] hosted a two-and-a-halflecture -- on Free Open Source Software, e-Learning,and an overview of the Philippine Commons project --during the launching of the Philippine-ported CreativeCommons 3.0 licenses on 14 January 2008; and iscurrently in collaboration with individuals, entities andassociations to bring together their pursuit towardsrealizable common goals.

CC-PH also is currently planning thematic quarterly events,related to the Philippine Commons, i.e. a general“Philippine Commons” summit every January, an “OpenEducation” symposium every April; a “Free Culture” eventevery July; and a “Free Open Source Software”conference every October.

We invite people to get involved.

Endnotes

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons2 http://www.philippinecommons.org

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STRIDES TOWARDS A PHILIPPINE

COMMONS -- A SAMPLING

During the early afternoon of 14January 2008, a set of talks was heldat the second floor of MarianoMagsalin Sr. Hall, at the ArellanoUniversity School of Law in TaftAvenue, Pasay City, Philippines,entitled “Strides towards thePhilippine Commons.”

For the first hour, Prof. Engels Antonioof Bluepoint Institute of HigherTechnology Foundation provided atalk on “Open Source 101,” whichfocused on the basics of softwareavailable in the market, andpersuaded the audience about thevalue of Free Open Source Software(FOSS). His base example was theFedora Linux Operating System.

Prof. Antonio is a trustee of theBluepoint Institute of Higher Technology Foundation. Hestarted playing with Linux in 1991 and obtained his RedHat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and Red Hat CertifiedExaminer (RHCX) certifications in 2002. He is in chargeof Total Linux, Linux Kernel Internals, Perl & PythonProgramming, and Extreme PHP curriculum andinstruction development of Bluepoint Foundation since1999. He is also a Fedora Ambassador and an OpenVZdeveloper.

On the other hand, Bluepoint Institute of HigherTechnology Foundation is a non-profit Open Sourceeducation and development center. It is the firstorganization in the Philippines that focuses on Linux andOpen Source training.

For the next hour, Prof. Leandre Andres S. Dacanay,President of the Philippine e-Learning Society (PeLS),provided a talk on "Teaching and Learning through e-Learning." He provided an in-depth discussion on how toundertake an e-Learning program.

Prof. Dacanay finished his undergraduate degree fromthe University of Santo Tomas in Education, major in

Computer Technology, and now pursuing his masteralstudies on educational management. Currently, he is theInternal Project Manager of the Educational TechnologyCenter, eLearning Access Program, also from theUniversity of Santo Tomas. Serving as President of thePhilippine eLearning Society (PeLS), he has been aparticipant in a number of international eLearningtrainings. From the California Virtual Campus, USA,APEC eLearning Training by the Institute of APECCollaborative Education in Pusan National University inBusan, Korea and eLearning Development andImplementation (eLDI), this time with the Global Campus

21 InWent-Germany. He was theconference chair of the recentlyconcluded 6th National eLearningConference with the theme"Learning About Technology,eLearning with technology for theAcademe and Industry" last October2007. His interests includeeducational technology, e-Learningand project management.

On the other hand, the PhilippineeLearning Society (PeLS) wasfounded on 30 July 2003 in Manilawith the objective of promotingsubstantive content, appropriatepedagogy, and appropriate use oftechnology for eLearning, guided byongoing research activities. PeLSserves as a venue for: Promotingresearch on the effective use of

eLearning, sharing of eLearning experiences, developingstandards of excellence, promoting interoperability ofeLearning systems, encouraging collaboration in thedevelopment of substantive content, cooperating withinternational eLearning groups, and promoting publicawareness and appreciation of the nature and uses ofeLearning.

Finally, Atty. Michael Vernon M. Guerrero, Deputy ProjectLead, Creative Commons Philippines, concluded the two-and-a-half talks, with an overview about the PhilippineCommons project, entitled “Collaborating Commoners:Towards a Philippine Commons.”

Berne Guerrero was a graduate of the Ateneo de ManilaUniversity, with a degree in Political Science, and of theArellano University School of Law (AUSL). He is the deputydirector of the e-Law Center and the IT Center of AUSL,the deputy project lead of Creative Commons in thePhilippines, a partner at the Ocampo Santos NunezLomangaya and Guerrero law offices, and a trustee ofthe Institute of Continuing Legal Studies and Education.His nickname has no direct relation to the BerneConvention on Copyright.

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NIGHTCAP: THE CC-PH MINI-

CONCERT

On the night of 14 January 2008, at the al fresco Hall, on the ground floor of theMariano Magsalin Sr. building at Arellano University School of Law, in Pasay City,Philippines, eight (8) amateur bands performed in the Creative CommonsPhilippines mini-concert, as part of the celebrations pertaining to the public launchingof the Philippine-ported Creative Commons licenses and the Philippine Commons.These bands include LexAdvox, Hotsi Patootsi, SOTC, Kahel, Prodigal, Mortadella,and Sopiz.

The bands sang their originals, except for a couple who included covers, duringthe mini-concert. The playlist includes [1] Mortadella’s ”Embrace November,”“Backtrack,” and “P.S.”; [2] Sopiz’s...; [3] SOTC’s “song.3,” “Magandang Balita,”[1] and “Pagtatapos ng bagong istorya”; [2] [4] Hotsi Patootsi’s untitled instrumental,“Tadhana,”[3] “Kahit hindi na tayo,”[4] “Ikaw na bahala,”[5] and “3 na”[6]; [5]Himalaya’s “Diyos ang salapi,”[7] “Hiling ko sana,”[8] and “Pwesto”[9]; [6] LexAdvox;s“Addiction,” “’Pagkat ikaw na nga,”[10] “Sabog,” [11] “Kalawakan,”[12] and “WalangHanggan” [13]; [7] Prodigal’s “Acree,” “Goodbye,” and “Golden Heart”; and [8]Kahel’s “Soundcheck,” “Fear to forget,” and “Beats.”

Half-way through the band sets,Mr. Eugene Marfil, of the locallyknown band “True Faith” and ofthe “Accidental Ideas” which isresponsible for the music site“newbornaudio.com” sang twoof his original compositions. Hecapped his performance with arendition of a True Faith classicentitled “Huwag na lang kaya.”

This event was organized withthe help of SpeedOfSound360productions and and N- TechLights & Sounds (sounds R us).

The event ended at half past tenin the evening -- a full three anda half gig.

Endnotes

1 Tagalog. “Good news.”2 Tagalog. “Ending of a new story.”3 Tagalog. “Fate.”4 Tagalog. “Even if it is not ‘us’ anymore.”5 Tagalog, roughly: “It’s up to you” or “You take

care of it.”6 Tagalog. “It’s already 3.”7 Tagalog. “Money is (his) god.”8 Tagalog, roughly. “My request...”9 Tagalog, literally. “position.”10 Tagalog. “Because, indeed, it is you.”11 Tagalog, colloquially. “wasted” or “drugged.”12 Tagalog, roughly. “space” or “skies.”13 Tagalog. “Without end.”

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THE PAST TWO MONTHS AT

CREATIVE COMMONS INTERNATIONAL(1 JANUARY-29 FEBRUARY 2008)

1 January 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. “Happy Public Domain Day! “

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7941

2 January 2008* Steuer, Eric. “Creative Commons Announces Pledges

Made to Fulfill “5×5” Funding Challenge” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7946

3 January 2008* Maracke, Catharina. “CC Hong Kong begins public

discussion” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7949

4 January 2008* Parkins, Cameron. "Political Novel “Republic”

Released Under CC License" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7950

Winners." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7963

* Linksvayer, Mike. "More CCCinema 2.0." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7964

8 January 2008* Vollmer, Timothy. "LiveContent

Available Through On-Disk.com." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7936

9 January 2008* Vollmer, Timothy. "New York

Times Continues Polling PlacePhoto Project." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7965

10 January 2008* Vollmer, Timothy. "Linux Format

Interviews Red Hat’s JackAboutboul." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7955

13 January 2008* Thorne, Michelle. "Philippine

Launch Celebration: a vibrantmember of the globalcommons." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7971

14 January 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. "Participatory

Media Lab launch with ccMixterana l y s i s . "h t t p : / /c r e a t i v ecommons.org/w e b l o g /entry/7975

* Reeder, Melissa. "ThankYou!" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7951

7 January 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. “Video

intro to RDFa." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7957

* Parkins, Cameron."Featured Commoner:BloodSpell." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7958

* Linksvayer, Mike. "NewYear Resolution: Free(v.)stuff." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7960

* Parkins, Cameron."Creative CommonsCinema 2.0" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7961

* Reeder, Melissa. "2007CC Swag Photo Contest

Above: Craig Neilson (http://www. f l i c k r. com/pho to s /exqu i r e /229964069/) / CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Above: Photo by Jodi Sperber / CCBY-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/)

Right: Berne Guerrero. CC BY 3.0 PH http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/

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15 January 2008* Vollmer, Timothy. “Manybooks.net Supports

Multi-format Texts forM u l t i - v e n u eReading” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7956

Below right: Photo by Venkatesh Harihara(ht tp://www.f l ickr.com/photos/venky7/2157716223/) / CC BY-NC-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

21 January 2008* Parkins, Cameron.

“Tone ReleasesSmall Arm of Sea”h t t p : / /creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7988

22 January 2008* Thorne, Michelle.

“ P u b l i cBroadcasters Optfor CC” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7987

23 January 2008* Bissell, Ahrash.

“Teachers, Students,Web Gurus, andFoundations Launch

* Park, Jane. “2008 Science Video Collection andRemix Challenge” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7967

* Laroia, Asheesh. “liblicense 0.5: first stable versionof C library supporting CC metadata” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7977

* Linksvayer, Mike. “CC0 beta/discussion draft launch”http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7978

16 January 2008* Rojer, Rebecca. “The Future of Ideas is now CC

Licensed” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7979

* Vollmer, Timothy. “Videos Posted from MIT OCWLandmark Event” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7976

Above: Asia and the Commons Case Studies 2008,( h t t p : / / c r e a t i v e c o m m o n s . o r g . a u /asiaandthecommons%20) presented at the ACIAworkshop. (http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/) The project,initiated by CCau (http://creativecommons.org.au/) and the CreativeCommons Clinic, (http://www.cci.edu.au/ccc/)represents an effort to uncover exemplaryindividuals and organizations engaged in thecommons in the Asia-Pacific region.

Above: 2009 Ford F-150 FX4 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fordmotorcompany/2183364190/) / Ford Motor Company / CC BY(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Campaign to Transform Education, Call for Free,Adaptable Learning Materials Online” http://creativecommons .org/weblog/entry/7992

* Bissell, Ahrash. “Make Textbooks Affordablecampaign launched” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7993

* Vollmer, Timothy. “SPARC Announces SPARKYWinners” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7991

24 January 2008* Thorne, Michelle. “ACIA: Asia Commoners meet in

Taipei” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7994

25 January 2008* Parkins, Cameron. “24/7: A DIY Video Summit”

Below: Newton2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Newton2) /CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/)

18 January 2008* Parkins, Cameron/ “Featured

Commoner: Monk Turner” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7981

* Parkins, Cameron. “Recut, Reframe,Recycle” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7985

20 January 2008* Vollmer, Timothy. “Doctorow

Completes Reading of Sterling’s ‘TheHacker Crackdown’” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7986

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7997

* Linksvayer, Mike. “Fordencourages fans with CC BYphotos” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7999

26 January 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. “Wikimedia

Commons Pictures of the Year”http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8001

* Linksvayer, Mike. “I wouldn’t steal<video>” http://creativecommons .org/weblog/entry/8000

Above: United States Air Force photo bySenior Airman Joshua Strang / publicdomain

16

28 January 2008* Parkins, Cameron. “Ground

Report Launches NewsWidget” http://creativecommons .org/weblog/entry/8003

* Parkins, Cameron. “FeaturedCommoner: James PatrickKelly ” http://creativecommons .org/weblog/entry/8004

* Vollmer, Timothy. “OpenEducational Resources AidFlorida Reading Teachers”http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8002

29 January 2008

* Parkins, Cameron. "Secondary Sound Released UnderCC-License" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8023

6 February 2008* Thorne, Michelle. "CC Salon in Chennai " http://

creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8033* Thorne, Michelle. "Download the Creative Commons

Newsletter #5” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8025

* Park, Jane. "Bayanihan Books, an Open TextbookInitiative" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8034

* Park, Jane. "OpenCourseWare Launched at UnitedNations University” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8035

8 February 2008* Yip, Jennifer. "2008 Summer

Internships" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8037

11 February 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. "commons-research

list" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8038

* Linksvayer, Mike. "Freeing America’sOperating System” http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8039

14 February 2008* Vollmer, Timothy. "Community Testing

for LiveContent 2.0 beta LiveDVD" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8006

* Vollmer, Timothy. "OLPC + CCHackathon" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8040

15 February 2008* Parkins, Cameron. "Lessig Library" http://

creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8042* Parkins, Cameron. "Jahtari." http://

creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8043* Parkins, Cameron. "8bitpeoples." http://

creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8044* Parkins, Cameron. "Songza." http://

creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7851

16 February 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. "CC0 beta/discussion draft

feedback and next step." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8045

Above: Lawrence Lessig atStanford’s Memorial Auditorium /photo by Robert Scoble / PublicDomain (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/)

* Steuer, Eric. “Lawrence Lessig to Give FinalPresentation on Free Culture andCopyright “ http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8011

31 January 2008* Thorne, Michelle. "Danish Collecting

Society KODA teams up with CC Denmark"http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8012

* Linksvayer, Mike. "Creative Commonslicensing for public sector information"http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8015

3 February 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. "Wikitravel Press

launches first printed titles" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8016

4 February 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. "Open documentary

proposal: then you win" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8017

* Linksvayer, Mike. "Scobleizing the publicdomain " http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8018

* Parkins, Cameron. "Enrico Casarosa onCC" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8019

* Parkins, Cameron. "The Art of MagicWords" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8020

* Parkins, Cameron. "Ronaldo Lemos’ PublicPolicy Talk at Google" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8021

* Parkins, Cameron. "Anomolo RecordsLaunches English Site" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8022

17

20 February 2008* Park, Jane. "3-D Internet for Learning Summit: What’s

Missing?" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8050

* Linksvayer, Mike. "Approved for Free Cultural Works."http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8051

21 February 2008* Thorne, Michelle. "Puerto Rico Launches Localized

Creative Commons Licenses." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8053

* Park, Jane. "SciVee Television." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8055

* Thorne, Michelle. "License drafts from Ecuador &Norway enter public discussion." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8046

Image: Screenshot of IBM Learning Summit,Active Worlds Browser 4.1. © 1995-2007 ActiveWorlds, Inc.

22 February 2008* Vollmer, Timothy.

"Nebraska LibraryCommission adds CC-licensed books tocollection." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8056

* Parkins, Cameron."Loops: Solo Dance,CC-Licensed." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8057

* Parkins, Cameron."Copyright Panel inNYC: 'Is IntellectualProperty Dead?'" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8059

* Parkins, Cameron."RetarDEAD ThemeSong CC-Licensed."h t t p : / /creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8060

23 February 2008* Linksvayer, Mike.

"LugRadio Live USA2008 and LugRadiolicensing." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8064

24 February 2008* Thaney, Kaitlin.

"Science CommonsNews: A commons-sense approach towinning the drug

discovery lottery." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8065

25 February 2008* Linksvayer, Mike. "Wireless Networking

in the Developing World." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8066

* Yergler, Nathan. "Illustrated Blogging withFlickr and CC." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8067

* Parkins, Cameron. "'Steal This Film' atOther Cinema, SF." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8068

26 February 2008* Parkins, Cameron. "ACLU Embraces CC

Licensing." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8069

* Parkins, Cameron. "Featured Commoner:vosotros." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8070

* Rojer, Rebecca. "Download SharingCreative Works." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8074

* Park, Jane. "CC and Net Neutrality." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8075

28 February 2008* Thorne, Michelle. "1st CC Korea International

Conference." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8077

* Linksvayer, Mike. "Is it possible to design non-defectiveDRM?" http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8080

* Thorne, Michelle. "University of Auckland embedsCC licensing." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8079

29 February 2008* Laroia, Asheesh. "Recycled Computers, Remixable

Content for schools." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8081

* Thorne, Michelle. "Free as in 'FREE BEER' Brewing inBerlin." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8082

* Parkins, Cameron. "Wireless Networking in theDeveloping World." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8085

* Parkins, Cameron, "CC Licensed Document Sharing"http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8087

* Parkins, Cameron, "Zhura." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8088

* Linksvayer, Mike. "Ro(cc)k music wanted." http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8090

18

ACIA (ASIA AND THE COMMONS IN THE

INFORMATION AGE): ASIA COMMONERS MEET IN TAIPEI

The workshop, ACIA: the International Workshop onAsia and Commons in the Information Age,[1] whichwas organized by CC Taiwan[2] and hosted atAcademica Sinica[3] on January 19-20 in Taipei,Taiwan, focused on bringing together members of the“Asia Commons” to meet and discuss regionalstrategies and initiatives. The program[4] opened witha keynote by Terry Fischer on “Solutions to the copyrightcrisis,”[5] in which he sought to combine legal reformsand business models with digital technologies thatcompensate creators while enabling cultural andeconomic benefits. Both Ts’ui-jung Liu, VP of AcademiaSinica, and Der Tsai Lee, director of the Institute ofInformation Science, Academia Sinica, were at theopening ceremonies and delivered greetings to theworkshop participants.

CC Vice President Mike Linksvayer chaired a sessionfeaturing plans for “The Making a Totally OpenPhone”,[6] Sony’s integration of CC licensing for theireyeVio video sharing service,[7] techniques in musicalcollaboration with “Jamming with Machines”,[8] and“Making Creative Commons Common in Asia”[9] by CC’sJon Phillips (slides).[10]

Later in the day, CC Australia[11] Project Manager JessicaCoates presented open licensing compatibility in “PlayingWell With Others”[12] at a panel with Chunyan Wang fromCC China Mainland[13] and Alina Ng from CC Malaysia.[14]

The CC Team from Australia and the Creative CommonsClinic[15] also announced the release of the Asia and theCommons case studies booklet,[16] a fantastic collection

of reports on individuals andorganizations engaged inthe commons in the Asia-Pacific region.

Their work was followed byLawrence Liang and hisdebate about concepts,“How Does An AsianCommons Mean.” [17] TheACIA workshop drew to anclose with Chu-ChengHuang’s final remarks on

Extended from the original by Michelle Thorne24 January 2008, CC BY 3.0

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/7994

the changing phases of property in “From res nullius tores communis,”[18] a session chaired by the event’sorganizer, Tyng-Ruey Chuang from CC Taiwan.

The social program picked up as the sun set with the CCAsia Mega Mix Concert featuring acts by Monbaza;[19]

Pig Head Skin;[19] MoShang[20] (video),[21] Kuo ChouChing,[22] Chang Jui-chuan,[23] and André van Rensburg,[24] Bust This,[25] Sudev Bangah,[26] and Lisa Diy.[27]

The next day, the conference reopened with a keynotefrom University of Hong Kong's Rebecca MacKinnon on"Free Culture and Free Speech: Why strong and vibrantfree culture communities are important for freedom ofexpression."[28] The kick-off was chaired by Shieu-chi Wengof the National Chengchi University. After the break,Catharina Maracke, of Creative Commons International,chaired the session on "Case studies and projectshowcases," which includes "Creative Commons Licensesfor Digital Cultural Heritage: A case study of the NationalDigital Archives Program"[29] by Shu-Jiun (Sophy) Chenof Academia Sinica, "Open legal content and CreativeCommons"[30] by Jimmy N. Soriano and Berne Guerreroof the Arellano University School of Law, "Introduction to

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19

Vietnam OpenCourseWare"[31] by Do Ngoc Minh of the Vietnam EducationFoundation, "CC Real Mixter: An experimental performance inspired by creativecommons"[32] by Wonyoung So and Hyojung Sun of Creative Commons Korea, "CCprojects in Japan"[33] by Klaus Gresbrand of Creative Commons Japan, "Licensingattitudes in Asia and (mis)perceptions of free culture”[34] by Giorgos Cheliotis" ofSingapore Management University, and "Toward useful Creative Commons adoptionmetrics"[35] by Mike Linksvayer of Creative Commons. After the discussion on theconcept and ramifications of "Asia and Commons,"[36] which was facilitated by Tyng-Ruey Chuang of Academia Sinica and Jessica Coates of Queensland University ofTechnology, the workshop was adjourned.

An optional social program[37] -- i.e. a Museum Tour -- was held in the afternoon.

Endnotes

1. http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/2. http://creativecommons.org.tw/3. http://www.sinica.edu.tw/4. http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/ac:program5. http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:solutions-to-the-copyright-crisis6. http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:the-making-of-a-totally-open-phone7. http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:sony-eyevio-user-generated-media-meets-

creative-commons8. http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:jamming-with-machines9. http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:making-creative-commons-common-in-

asia10. http://rejon.org/2008/01/19/slides-from-acia-and-asia-commons-conference-in-taiwan/11 http://www.creativecommons.org.au/12 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:playing-well-with-others13 http://cn.creativecommons.org/14 http://www.creativecommons.org.my/15 http://www.cci.edu.au/ccc/16 http://creativecommons.org.au/asiaandthecommons%2017 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:how-does-an-asian-commons-mean18 http://www.monbaza.com/19 http://my.streetvoice.com.tw/pigheadskin20 http://moshang.net/21 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g90FXXEdluI22 http://kou.com.tw/23 http://www.myspace.com/juichuanchang24 http://www.myspace.com/andrevanrensburg25 http://www.groovestore.co.kr/album/album_view.php?goods_code=G119675216926 http://www.myspace.com/sbinfluence27 http://www.m2kmusic.net/resources/songwriters/lisa_diy.htm28 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:free-culture-and-free-speech29 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:creative-commons-licenses-for-digital-

cultural-heritage30 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:open-legal-content-and-creative-commons31 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:introduction-to-vietnam-opencourseware32 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:cc-real-mixter33 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:cc-projects-in-japan34 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:licensing-attitudes-in-asia-and-mis-

perceptions-of-free-culture25 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:cc-adoption-metrics36 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/program:asia-and-commons37 http://meeting.creativecommons.org.tw/ac:social-program

20

INTRODUCING THE ARELLANO

LAW SINGERS

The Arellano Law Singers (ALS), agroup of talented law students, wasofficially formed on December 2001and immediately served its role asthe Arellano University School of Law(AUSL)'s mbassador of music, law andGod to the Arellano Law Community.

The ALS is geared towards theattainment of it aspiration to foster theinvaluable contribution of music to thelegal profession and vice-versa.Further, it seeks to instill and upholdthe morale, essential to the legal studythrough the groups musicality andartistic talent.

One ot its humble beginnings was thestaging of "Evo-Law-tion", the firstmajor concert of the group. Next wasthe release of "MUBAKA ConcertSeries", ALS' debut CD album."Denimo-Law-gy" followed onDecember 2003, which marked thegroup's second anniversary andsecond full length concert.

Such was followed by its 3rd and latestfull length concert entitled "The Law& Loving It!", a rare musical eventwhich was designed to showcase the passion and love ofeach member of the law community for God, countryand life, as it was celebrated during the love month of theyear 2005.

On 14 January 2008, during the formal launching ofthe Creative Commons Philippine jurisdictional licenses,

the ArellanoLaw Singersreleased analbum entitled“A slice of VoxLegis” under aC r e a t i v e

Commons Attribution -N o n C o m m e r c i a l -ShareAlike 3.0 Philippineslicense. The albumcontains six (6) songs,composed and renderedby the Arellano LawSingers, which were partof the original 15-trackalbum “Vox Legis.” Thesongs are artistic renditionsof basic legal information,

such as the “Preamble,” “National Territory,” “The Bill ofRights,” and “Citizenship,” of the 1987 PhilippineConstitution, discussed in Political Law; “Social Justice,”as defined in the landmark Philippine case of “Calalangvs. Williams, GR 47800, 2 December 1940”, which isdiscussed under Political Law and Labor Law; and the“Lawyer’s Oath” which is discussed under Legal Ethics.

Copies of the album were distributed free during thelaunching of the Creative Commons Philippine licenselaunching on the said date of 14 January 2008 and duringthe ACIA conference held at Academia Sinica, Taipei,Taiwan on 19-20 January 2008.

21

INTRODUCING LISA DIY

Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Maria Elisa Sempio Diy,or Lisa Diy as she is known in the Philippine industry, is alyricist and a composer. She has been designated, onJanuary 2008, as Creative Commons Philippines’resident-artist in music.

Lisa Diy released two (2) of the her compositions, “I chooseyou” and “Isama mo ako” under Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivate 3.0 Philippinesduring the launching of the Creative Commons Philippineslicenses on 14 January 2008, and sang “I choose you”during the ”CC Asia Mega Mix!”, the ACIA Concert, atRiverside Cafe, Taipei, Taiwan on the evening of 19January 2008. She is working with other artists, whoperformed during the ACIA Concert, in developing theCC Asia Band. She has recently released an unwordedcomposition entitled “Moved by an angel” as hercontribution to the upcoming project of the CC Asia Band.

Lisa has written and composed at least twenty popularand best-selling songs for top Filipino singers/artists. Oneof her songs, “To Reach You,” sang by Regine Velasquez,achieved a Platinum Award in the Philippine recordingindustry. Other popular songs she composed, some intandem with songwriter Chat Zamora, include “With you”and “Paulit ulit” by Jaya; “Tila”[ by Lani Misalucha; “Kailanpa man,” “Pangarap sa aking puso,”“My heart still wishes

for you,” “Long for him,” and “Cradle me this Christmas”by Regine Velasquez; “When I love” by Sharon Cuneta;“Open” by Rochelle Nava; “Open” also by Zsa Zsa Padilla;“Beginning today” and “Til the End” by Agot Isidro; “Asyou sleep,” and “I remember” by Gabby Eigenmann;“Love is in your eyes” by Vernie Varga; “Wherever I go”and “Dahil May Pag-ibig Pa” by Pops Fernandez; the duet“Just Like Before” by Gabby Eigenmann and RegineVelasquez; and the duet “Magtatagpong muli” by DennisTrillo and Regine Velasquez; among others. [1]

Lisa was born on 25 April 1966 in Quezon City. Shehoned her songwriting skills as a high school colegiala inSt. Paul’s College, playing keyboards for a band, joininginterscholastic songfests, and composing school hymns.She got her first break as a professional songwriter in1987 when she passed a demo to popular singer RandySantiago through a friend.

Lisa is also a Law graduate of San Beda College, and hasbeen recognized by the local government of Quezon City,Metro Manila, Philippines as the fastest judge in said cityas she hands down court decisions with startling speedand efficiency.

Reference:

http://www.m2kmusic.net/resources/songwriters/lisa_diy.htm

22

THE PHILIPPINE

LEGAL COMMONS

Every society has a regime of law, and we are civilizedbecause we are governed by laws. Nowadays, however,people have to contend with a lot of laws and rules, not tomention case laws or jurisprudence provided by theCourts. Laws are not just becoming numerous, and arealso becoming very complicated for ordinary people tounderstand. As a result, laws are assumed to beunderstood only by those who are pursuing the legalprofession (like students, professors, legal practitioners,and those who work for the Bench), those who pass orcraft the law (like legislators and implementors), and thosewho invoke the law for their protection. Still, we are stillnot certain whether the above three mentioned groups,which are presumed to understand the law, actuallyunderstand it since the laws are numerous andcomplicated.

There is an existing legal principle or maxim, such as inthe Philippines, that “Ignorance of the law excuses noone from compliance therewith.” Considering the above,thus, what can be done to cure this apparent legalilliteracy?

The primary step to such cure is access to the law. Digitaltechnology has provided the platform for easier accessfor legal content. Unfortunately, legal content which aresupposed to be in the public domain are commerciallyexploited, all within the context of copyright.

An abstract and summary of Atty. Jaime N. Soriano’s andAtty. Michael Vernon Guerrero’s talk at the ACIAConference in Taipei, Taiwan on 20 January 2008

Laws and jurisprudence, as they intimately affect the public,should remain public and not locked as proprietary contentby way of the creation of the derivative work of "collection." Itis suggested that proponents of the commons, in theirjurisdictions, find ways of gathering public domain materialsto equate the collections being pursued by proprietary entities,especially in the absence of government effort to provide thesame, in the same direction that FLOSS has been made analternative to the previously predominant proprietary softwarein the market. Although it may be contended that this line ofproject(s) is predominantly in the realm of law practitionersand law students, the direction, however, assures theavailability of materials that would aid ordinary citizens to beinformed of their rights, obligations, and potential liabilitiesas provided by public documents. The availability of the saidresources also provides for the raw data that could be usefulin the development of other value-added law-relateddocuments, which if released similarly, could benefit thecommons and/or society in general.

It is with this background that emphasis is being made to theregion-wide cooperation being cultivated to gather multi-jurisdictional legal content. The Philippines, for example, hasmultiple public resources available to satisfy aspects of legalresearch. One of these is the LawPhil Project developed by theCreative Commons Philippine jurisdiction lead publicinstitution, Arellano University School of Law. In turn, theLawPhil Project, among other entities in the region, hascontributed to the content available in the Asian LegalInformation Institute resource. Further efforts remain to beimportant to support this direction.

Following the pattern of development of this class of legalcontent, fresh efforts are being exerted to create another classof content, i.e. value-added law-related documents, that areto be released to the commons, preferably through CreativeCommons licensing. This is to provide alternative to proprietarylaw books, which are usually limited by printingconsiderations (such as content volume-to-price ratio, updaterequirements viz existing inventory, etc.) The availability oflicensed legal content can provide substantial impact in laweducation, the delivery of legal services, etc., that could inureto the benefit of society as well.

Active participation by legally-interested individuals in thedevelopment of a single comprehensive resource is also beingcontemplated.

23

As a response to this situation, in 2001, the Arellano LawFoundation initiated the LawPhil project (http://www.lawphil.net). The idea was to create a simpledatabank of all the Philippine laws, rules, regulations;and cases decided by Philippine Supreme Court, startingfrom 1901. This resource has become a comprehensiveand popular legal database in the Philippines. Governmentagencies responded positively to this facility, inasmuch asthey likewise shared legal content freely to the publicthrough the Internet.

Subsequently, the University of South Wales/AustralianLegal Information Institute (AUSLII) invited the ArellanoLaw Foundation, with its LawPhil project, to be a part ofthe Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII; http://asianlii.org/)’s network, which the latter accepted. TheAsianLII attempts to make laws accessible in Asia.

The mission of Arellano University School of Law, as thelead public institution for Creative Commons in thePhilippines, does not end by providing access to rawlegal content. The next task is to make the public knowwhat the law is all about through the Legal Commons.The ultimate goal is to ensure that we are a society wherethere is no excuse for ignorance of the law.

Within the sphere of Creative Commons, we have beenlooking at sharing artistic, scientific/academic, and literarycontent. Why not look into the sharing of legal content?

We have discussed raw legal content, like the LawPhilproject and those from government websites.Government repositories are in public domain, someprivate collections are “All Rights Reserved,” while theLawPhil’s collection is licensed under Creative Commons.On matters involving derivatives and annotations,however, except for Government agency FAQs andsimilar materials, most of these contents remain underfull copyright. The question is why not bring CreativeCommons licensing into the sharing of legal annotationsand primers? Consider the benefits, especially for end-users, for doing so.

As to content delivery, law professors would increase theusually sole option of recommeding propriety content withtwo additional options, i.e. recommending open content,else remixing sharedcontent to suit one’s personalapproach in teaching law.

As to legal service delivery, law practitioners who get holdof derivative open legal content -- which may surpass thelimitations of propriety content as to matters of inventory,cost of printing, and the like -- could be more updated,and hence dispense more quality services to clients.

As to transfer of knowledge, since there could be twoclasses of legal content that could be generated by sharing,depending upon the original and subsequent author-

licensor’s use of legal language -- i.e. lawyer-readablelegal content and layman-readable legal content --derivative content can serve the purpose of legal scholarsand practitioners, on one hand, and serve the purpose oflaymen and the masses. Lawyer-readable legal contentcould be very relevant for the first two benefits, but layman-readable content is definitely potent to enlightenresponsible individuals (in media, and in education, asexamples) who could in turn enlighten the masses in theactual ramifications of the law and prevent themselvesfrom misleading the last with imaginative fictions aboutthe law.

Looking at the mechanism of content delivery, legal servicedelivery, and transfer of knowledge, it would be apparentthat the method seems predominantly that of a cascadingmodel. Still, a collaborative model can actually beavailable, else more so, desired. The latter modeltranscends the relationship of “I” to “you” and emphasizethe “we” in the development of a resource. There ispromise in the dynamics of collaborating inputs andfeedback in a learning community.

The bottom line of any effort in this line is that “we try toempower people,” which has been repeatedly articulatedin advocacies in favor of the commons. To foster the legalcommons merely emphasize this bottom line in twodimensions: the freedom which relates to sharing, reuse,

and remixing of legal content, and the other freedomwhich relates to knowledge of the mechanics of that whichis intimately intertwined with out lives (however we try toavoid it), which is the law.

Besides, thus, ensuring the provision of open raw legalcontent, as in the LawPhil Project, we aim to licensepreviously printed books created by us with CreativeCommons licenses, convert current research on Philippinelaws and applicable juriseprudence as free open e-books,and provide the infrastructure for legal scholars to allowthem to collaborate on a common legal resource.

24

BAYANIHAN BOOKS, AN OPEN

TEXTBOOK INITIATIVE

Bayanihan[1] is a Tagalog term originating from the rootword Bayani, or hero. Today, Bayanihan represents anheroic effort on the part of the community, or the actionsof a group of people that result in a common good. GregMoreno’s new initiative, Bayanihan Books,[2] is aptlynamed.

With 17.5 million public school students in the Philippines,affordable access to textbooks is not a simple matter.Textbook companies can monopolize the market, uppingprices for students and schools that can’t always affordthem. Moreno’s plan is to compete with these companiesby shifting the control of textbook content from a few tomany -- the community. Textbook making will be acollaborative project, a sort of wiki-style peer editing andreview consisting of volunteers. The content will bepublished under a Creative Commons license specific tothe Philippines that allows it to be shared. But the ultimategoal is to have the content be in print and distributedwidely to public schools. That’s where the publishingcompanies come in.

The publishing companies will bid on the content, andbecause they don’t have to deal with doling out royaltyfees to a community of volunteers, they will only have toshoulder the costs of the actual printing. Then they candistribute the books at minimal cost to schools around thecountry, while still making quite a profit for themselves.Everyone wins. Currently, they are working on two[3]

books.

During late January to early February 2008, BayanihanBooks’ active community has increased to 43, andcontinues to grow. Further, Bayanihan Books appearedon Inquirer.net courtesy of Erwin Oliva. [4]

Endnotes

1 “Bayanihan” is synonymous with “Tulungan,” which is translatedas “Helping each other.” Bayanihan is stereotypically depictedas rural folks carrying or moving a rural hut.

2 http://blog.bayanihanbooks.org/3 http://blog.bayanihanbooks.org/books4 http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/

20080203-116516/Pinoy-uses-wiki-model-to-make-textbooks-for-public-schools

by Jane Park6 February 2008, CC BY 3.0http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/8034and the Philippine Commons website7 February 2008, CC BY 3.0 PHhttp://philippinecommons.org/2008/02/07/bayanihan-books-gains-momentum/

CREATIVE COMMONS

NEWSLETTERS 1-5

In light of the encouragement, in Ms.Melissa Reeder’s email, for the sharingand remixing of the Creative Commonsnewsletter, [1] Creative CommonsPhilippines released an unofficial PDFversion of the fifth issue,[2] for peoplewho need the base information printed,so they may read them offline.

Similarly, previous issues were alsoretroactively created (all unofficialversions of the newsletter), to completethe series. [3] [4]

Endnotes

1 “This newsletter is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/— please share and remix!”

2 h t t p : / / p h i l i p p i n e c o m m o n s . o r g /downloads/ccnewsletter5.pdf. “No. 5” ©2008. Berne Guerrero. CC BY 3.0 PHhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/

3 h t t p : / / p h i l i p p i n e c o m m o n s . o r g /downloads/ccnewsletter4.pdf. “Wrapped”© 2008. Berne Guerrero. CC BY 3.0 PHhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/ ; http://philippinecommons.org/downloads/ccnewsletter3.pdf. “PublicityRights?” © 2008. Berne Guerrero. CC BY-SA 3.0 PH http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ph/; http://philippinecommons.org/downloads/ccnewsletter2.pdf. “c-Flame” © 2008.Berne Guerrero. CC BY 3.0 PH http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/; and http://philippinecommons.org/d o w n l o a d s / c c n e w s l e t t e r 1 . p d f .“Mainstream?” © 2008. Berne Guerrero.CC BY 3.0 PH http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ph/

4 Full credits for the source images are athttp://philippinecommons.org/2008/02/06/cc-newsletter-5/

by the Philippine Commons website6 February 2008, CC BY 3.0 PHhttp://philippinecommons.org/2008/02/06/cc-newsletter-5/